ucfdiver
Contributor
So I'm a few months late posting this...but better late than never? My fiancee is in Rec 1 currently, and will be finishing next weekend. I'll try to write up what I've witnessed watching the class, or maybe talk her into posting first hand.
My GUE Fundies class was taught by Meredith Tanguay and Daniel Riordan. I guess it's worth noting that I had full cave (100+ dives since) and trimix before taking this class.
Before Class
Before taking any GUE class, you must fill out a student profile and apply to take the course on GUEs website. Registration fee was $95, but it includes all student materials unlike other agencies where youre buying a book, dive tables, etc. I was very impressed that I could use my iPad to read the courseware on instead of having to carry a heavy book around and feel bad about wasting paper. After registering Meredith Tanguay, our instructor, emailed us specific worksheets that would need to be reviewed and completed before class so that we came in prepared. From talking with her, had we been traveling or logistics been more difficult, GUE instructors can do gear overview and even the classroom presentation via Skype, which I think is GREAT!
Day 1
We met around 8am at Extreme Exposure, who was an excellent host for the course. They have a classroom that is very supportive of learningcomfortable, DIR compliant gear setups on easy to demo stands, overhead projector so slides are easy to see, etc. The class started out by asking us what our goals were for the course. I was already familiar with the high points of GUE from the mentoring and experience I had gained from GUE divers, but I did want to see how the information was presented to divers new to the DIR idea, as well as improve basic skills (actually I didnt expect to get as much in that area as I did). We were also asked to give a general summary of our diving history and background.
After the introduction we started going over the slides. The slides were extremely professional, and decorated with high quality images from around the world. Occasionally youd see a hidden easter egg if you watched carefullya photo from the day where bottles were marked by color and not a MOD sticker stood out. The course material covers a variety of topics, and given the fact that I had been awake since 5am was difficult to stay awake forI would suggest giving yourself a travel day before beginning the course so that youre relaxed and not tired.
Due to weather, we took advantage of a break in thunderstorms around lunch time to head over to Ginnie Springs and complete the swim test. Ive heard quite a few people worry about the difficulty of the swim test, but at the Fundamentals Course level its not hard at allwe completed it in 9 of the allotted 14 minutes, and no one was pushing themselves particularly hard. If youre an in shape adult, youll find this portion pretty easy. Once that was done, we used a SMB to practice some of the kick movements which we had practiced in air on a picnic table earlier in the day. In the water, they feel substantially different than in the air since you have water resistance. I had never seen this technique used to demonstrate the kicks, but I found it very informative. As we struggled to maintain perfect form, we were told some neat tips to help think about each kickWhen doing a helicopter kick, think about passing sand from one foot to the other, For a back kick, think Toes, Heels, Back, PULL.
Day 2
Contrary to the description of overwhelming and demanding dives, Day 2 was a bit of a surprise with how easy it wasafter being given 3-5 minutes to settle in underwater, you start with the basic 5, essentially, regulator in/out, swap regulators, show you can donate gas, show you can clear your mask, and the fifth step remove mask and then clear. Once we proved that we could complete the basic 5, we went slightly more complicated and completed our first S drill. In between these skills, we had a line setup to swim over and demonstrate a back kick, helicopter, and normal/modified version of the flutter and frog kicks. Day two ended with a debrief of things to work on, what lecture items we need to review as homework, etc.
Day 3
This day started out with a video debrief of Day 2s dives. The video was the part I was semi worried about, since its the perfect scenario for getting brow beat by your instructoryoure thinking Oh my, everything I did wrong yesterday is on video. These fears were without basis however, as Meredith had cut the video to watch down to only items we didnt fix by the last dive of the day. The presentation wasnt You did this wrong, this wrong, this wrong, but rather a positive reinforcement of what we did right as well as critique on areas to improve. As an example, I dont use a flutter kick often and its one of my weaker skills, Merediths critique was You see here your knees are dropping, so what we want to do is imagine you have a reel in between them and are trying to hold it without droppingthe critique is almost done in such a way where its never directly said that you messed up, youre just told how to adjust. It creates a very safe environment for learning.
In water, today would be the first time that we would lead the predive rather than Meredith. We also added a valve drill as the only other new skill in class. The focus of these two dives would primarily be on fixing yesterdays procedural mistakes and further refinement of our in water basic skills. I continued to struggle with the flutter kick and was directed to a log, where I could perform a kick with Meredith and Danny controlling my fins and ensuring that I knew what the correct motion should feel like. That was very helpful, and something that had never been done to me before. On the final dive of day 3, we did an S drill right before the turn time of the dive and were instructed to ascend while sharing gas.
We then returned to Extreme Exposure to do the land portion of the SMB lecture, as well as a review of how to rescue a diver underwater. After we did that and wrapped up a few last parts of the classroom presentation, we took the exam and departed ways for the night.
Day 4
The final dayonce again started by video debrief of items which werent fixed from the day before. Day 4 we would be adding two new skills, deploying a SMB and a rescue ascent, as well as adding a swimming portion to the no mask skill we had already learned. I was slightly curious how we were doing as far as pass/fail, but had learned so much in 3 days that I didnt really care. Passing or failing was never discussed in any of the debriefs only improving, including continuing to improve skills which already met the written standards.
In water we continued to refine kicks in between practicing the diver rescue and smb skills. The diver rescue the first time around was a bit of a mess, but after some critique/advice we really improved itits quite hard managing 4 bubbles of gas (2x Drysuit and wing) between two divers in part because it is a skill which was never introduced to me at any time during cave training.
My GUE Fundies class was taught by Meredith Tanguay and Daniel Riordan. I guess it's worth noting that I had full cave (100+ dives since) and trimix before taking this class.
Before Class
Before taking any GUE class, you must fill out a student profile and apply to take the course on GUEs website. Registration fee was $95, but it includes all student materials unlike other agencies where youre buying a book, dive tables, etc. I was very impressed that I could use my iPad to read the courseware on instead of having to carry a heavy book around and feel bad about wasting paper. After registering Meredith Tanguay, our instructor, emailed us specific worksheets that would need to be reviewed and completed before class so that we came in prepared. From talking with her, had we been traveling or logistics been more difficult, GUE instructors can do gear overview and even the classroom presentation via Skype, which I think is GREAT!
Day 1
We met around 8am at Extreme Exposure, who was an excellent host for the course. They have a classroom that is very supportive of learningcomfortable, DIR compliant gear setups on easy to demo stands, overhead projector so slides are easy to see, etc. The class started out by asking us what our goals were for the course. I was already familiar with the high points of GUE from the mentoring and experience I had gained from GUE divers, but I did want to see how the information was presented to divers new to the DIR idea, as well as improve basic skills (actually I didnt expect to get as much in that area as I did). We were also asked to give a general summary of our diving history and background.
After the introduction we started going over the slides. The slides were extremely professional, and decorated with high quality images from around the world. Occasionally youd see a hidden easter egg if you watched carefullya photo from the day where bottles were marked by color and not a MOD sticker stood out. The course material covers a variety of topics, and given the fact that I had been awake since 5am was difficult to stay awake forI would suggest giving yourself a travel day before beginning the course so that youre relaxed and not tired.
Due to weather, we took advantage of a break in thunderstorms around lunch time to head over to Ginnie Springs and complete the swim test. Ive heard quite a few people worry about the difficulty of the swim test, but at the Fundamentals Course level its not hard at allwe completed it in 9 of the allotted 14 minutes, and no one was pushing themselves particularly hard. If youre an in shape adult, youll find this portion pretty easy. Once that was done, we used a SMB to practice some of the kick movements which we had practiced in air on a picnic table earlier in the day. In the water, they feel substantially different than in the air since you have water resistance. I had never seen this technique used to demonstrate the kicks, but I found it very informative. As we struggled to maintain perfect form, we were told some neat tips to help think about each kickWhen doing a helicopter kick, think about passing sand from one foot to the other, For a back kick, think Toes, Heels, Back, PULL.
Day 2
Contrary to the description of overwhelming and demanding dives, Day 2 was a bit of a surprise with how easy it wasafter being given 3-5 minutes to settle in underwater, you start with the basic 5, essentially, regulator in/out, swap regulators, show you can donate gas, show you can clear your mask, and the fifth step remove mask and then clear. Once we proved that we could complete the basic 5, we went slightly more complicated and completed our first S drill. In between these skills, we had a line setup to swim over and demonstrate a back kick, helicopter, and normal/modified version of the flutter and frog kicks. Day two ended with a debrief of things to work on, what lecture items we need to review as homework, etc.
Day 3
This day started out with a video debrief of Day 2s dives. The video was the part I was semi worried about, since its the perfect scenario for getting brow beat by your instructoryoure thinking Oh my, everything I did wrong yesterday is on video. These fears were without basis however, as Meredith had cut the video to watch down to only items we didnt fix by the last dive of the day. The presentation wasnt You did this wrong, this wrong, this wrong, but rather a positive reinforcement of what we did right as well as critique on areas to improve. As an example, I dont use a flutter kick often and its one of my weaker skills, Merediths critique was You see here your knees are dropping, so what we want to do is imagine you have a reel in between them and are trying to hold it without droppingthe critique is almost done in such a way where its never directly said that you messed up, youre just told how to adjust. It creates a very safe environment for learning.
In water, today would be the first time that we would lead the predive rather than Meredith. We also added a valve drill as the only other new skill in class. The focus of these two dives would primarily be on fixing yesterdays procedural mistakes and further refinement of our in water basic skills. I continued to struggle with the flutter kick and was directed to a log, where I could perform a kick with Meredith and Danny controlling my fins and ensuring that I knew what the correct motion should feel like. That was very helpful, and something that had never been done to me before. On the final dive of day 3, we did an S drill right before the turn time of the dive and were instructed to ascend while sharing gas.
We then returned to Extreme Exposure to do the land portion of the SMB lecture, as well as a review of how to rescue a diver underwater. After we did that and wrapped up a few last parts of the classroom presentation, we took the exam and departed ways for the night.
Day 4
The final dayonce again started by video debrief of items which werent fixed from the day before. Day 4 we would be adding two new skills, deploying a SMB and a rescue ascent, as well as adding a swimming portion to the no mask skill we had already learned. I was slightly curious how we were doing as far as pass/fail, but had learned so much in 3 days that I didnt really care. Passing or failing was never discussed in any of the debriefs only improving, including continuing to improve skills which already met the written standards.
In water we continued to refine kicks in between practicing the diver rescue and smb skills. The diver rescue the first time around was a bit of a mess, but after some critique/advice we really improved itits quite hard managing 4 bubbles of gas (2x Drysuit and wing) between two divers in part because it is a skill which was never introduced to me at any time during cave training.
